


Time 2

by pizzawitholives



Series: One-shots - Hobbit [2]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Female Bilbo Baggins, Female Bilbo Baggins/Thorin Oakenshield, Kid Fili, Kid Kili
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-03-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 09:46:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22967947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pizzawitholives/pseuds/pizzawitholives
Summary: It has been five years since Bella walked out. Now teaching at Hobbiton primary school she has a run in with the past in an unexpected way.
Relationships: Bilbo Baggins/Thorin Oakenshield
Series: One-shots - Hobbit [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1640983
Comments: 2
Kudos: 100





	Time 2

8:15

Bella gave a soft sigh as she entered her new classroom. She had moved back to Hobbiton just over five years ago and she had finally managed to get a job at the Hobbiton primary school as temporary relief towards the end of the past year while the teacher was on maternity leave. The previous teacher had decided not to come back and so Bella was asked to take over the position. 

“Hi Bella! How was the summer?” Arwen was her fellow kindergarten teacher, the two had attended the same high school and university although the other girl had been in the year ahead of her.

“Hi Arwen! Summer was quite good actually, except my family kept trying to set me up. Do you remember Holman Chubb, he was a year ahead of you I believe” while the two spoke they walked around the the common area and started to hang up various posters “any way, aunt Camellia and Lobelia Bracegirdle kept inviting him to everything and hinting that we should date.”

“Well, it has been five years Bella, maybe it is time you try again.”

“When I meet someone who makes me want to try again then I will.”

8:45

The bell rang and the two teachers moved outside to welcome the students and their parents, they seperated and Bella moved to stand further down ready to meet the kids in her class.  Five year olds were energetic little buggers but put them in a classroom for the first time and suddenly they sit still. And silent.

"Auntie Bell!" Looking up Bella saw Primula walking over with Frodo pulling at her hand. It had been a joy for Prim and Drogo to find that their beloved cousin would be Frodo's teacher for his first year of school.

"Hello Frodo! Are you ready to learn my boy?" at his nod, which consisted of him bouncing up and down while nodding his head, she continued "remember what we said yesterday dear, at school you mustn't call me auntie."

She sent Frodo inside after he said a quick goodbye to his parents and almost instantly heard him introducing himself to another student.

“Hi I’m Frodo, I'm five, who are you?”

“I'm five too! My name is Kili. Are you in Miss Arwen’s class?”

“No i’m in my auntie Bella’s class, but I mus...mustent call her auntie at school.”

_ Kili  _ something in her memory stirred but Bella shook her head and ignored the memories that were full of pain. She had a class to teach.

1.00

First week of school meant the kindergarteners were picked up halfway through lunch time. Frodo would be staying with her until the end of the school day along with any of the kids whose parents weren't able to pick them up early. While the students ran out to lunch and Arwen followed to supervise them, Bella gave the classroom a quick tidy before getting out several toys and games for the students staying at school.

Frodo was stomping around with his friend Sam Gamgee, his cousin Pippin and another, dark haired boy whom she did not recognise yet looked familiar. As she watched the group play, another boy walked over he was a few grades older, year three, judging by the fact he was with Merry, another cousin of Frodo and Pippin. The new boy was blond and obviously knew the dark haired boy Frodo was playing with. 

1:15

Frodo pointed over at her and she waved, Sam, Merry and Pippin all waved back while the other two boys simply stared. The blond one had piercing blue eyes and a memory stirred in the back of her mind another face with those same eyes.

_ “I love you Bell” _

_ “I love you too, Thor…” _

Bella shook herself out of the memory. It had been five years. Maybe Arwen was right and she did need to start dating again.

1:20

As the halftime bell rang Arwen and Bella rounded up all the kindergarten children, as Bella called out the names of the children who would be staying behind they moved into the classroom and sat in the reading area as she instructed. Soon she had the students that would be staying and Arwen led the rest to the pick up area. Sam, Frodo and Pippin would all be staying with her, once Merry finished he would join them in the classroom and once she was finished with work she would walk home with all four of them, dropping Merry and Pippin with their parents, who lived down the road from Bella and across the street from each other. Sam lived next door to her and Frodo and his parents lived in the massive house of Bag End with her. 

Additional to Frodo, Pippin and Sam were Rosie Cotton, Lalia Clayhanger and Kili Durinson, the dark haired boy who had been playing with Frodo.

The name gave Bella a small heart attack. Durinson was not the most common name in Hobbiton but there were a few families in the surrounding suburbs that had that name. Still, a five year old boy, with the name Kili…. She wouldn’t jump to conclusions, it may be a coincidence, but in her heart she knew that wasn’t true.

1:37

The children were talking about their families while doing some colouring in, Frodo had happily informed them all that Bella was his ‘auntie Bell’ and Pippin was quick to jump in and inform them all that she was his auntie too. 

“My brother Fili told me we almost had an auntie Bell.”

_ “Can I call you auntie Bell? You gonna mawwy uncle T’orin awren’t you?” _

Fili. Kili. brothers. Not a coincidence then. So Dis would likely be picking them up. Or maybe Vili. after she had left Thorin she had spoken to them both once. She had gone over to say goodbye to them and the kids, she had made some chocolate lace cookies for them and Fili had cried. She was his auntie, even if not by law yet, and she made the best cookies and now he wouldn’t get either.

“You have a brother! That’s cool, I wish I had a brother” Bella smiled at Frodo, he had been asking his parents for a brother ever since he found out what a brother was.

Deep breaths. She could do this, it wasn't like Thorin would be picking them up, Dis had never allowed her brother to collect Fili from pre-school because she didn’t want attention from other gangs - namely the orcs - on her son. Even Vili collected them as little as possible, he wasn’t a part of Thorin's gang but if he was around when something happened he helped his family out.

“Alright Kids, how about we play a game of twister!”

The resulting cheer she got was deafening.

3:10

By the time the bell rang the kids had tired of twister after they had gotten so twisted up they all fell at the same time. Instead they were running around the classroom playing dragon hunter, a game Bella had made up for Fili once and she had taught it to Frodo, Merry, Pippin and Sam. One of them was a dragon and the other boys had to hunt it down. With the two girls also playing Rosie had become the princess that Sam the dragon had captured and Lalia had turned on the boys and decided to protect Sam because had had made sure to put her best friend on the comfy chair.

Her door opened and both Merry and Fili walked in. Merry yelled a quick hello before running to join in, deciding to aid Lalia in her protection of Sam, who was currently ‘blowing fire’ at the other three boys.

Fili looked at her for a few moments, recognition in his eyes for a second, before it disappeared.

“Hi, I’m Fili, Kili’s brother. I’m supposed to wait here until we get picked up.” he handed over his note and Bella nodded, she had been told that there would be a sibling joining in the afternoon group. 

“Hi Fili, I’m Miss Bella, one of the Kindy teachers. You are welcome to join in the game. They are playing dragon hunter. I’m sure Frodo can explain the rules” she pointed her cousin out where he was ‘hiding’ behind her desk with Pippin and Kili coming up with a plan.

“Thanks aun… Miss Bella”

Fili listened as the boys explained what was happening his eyes on the reading corner that Sam had made his lair. Currently Sam was holding a tea party for Rosie, Merry and Lalia, they were celebrating the fact that Rosie was still with them. The captured girl seemed quite happy with that fact, judging by the smile on her face.

“Everyone got it? Good” Fili was now organising the other boys, having come up with a strategy “now let's go get Smaug!!!”

Smaug. Ori had a ginger cat named Smaug and said cat had often been the dragon Fili hunted. He remembered, on some level he remembered her and that made her heart ache for the boy who would have been her nephew.

3:30

Rosie and Lalia were both picked up by their parents and the game stopped. The boys packed up the room under Bella’s watchful eye and then sat down to continue colouring in. Fili walked over to Bella and stood in front of her desk, waiting for her to look up from her lesson plans for tomorrow.

“Auntie Bell?”

she paused and took a deep breath, she should have expected this  “Yes Fili.”

“I missed you, so did mum, and dad and uncle, everyone did.”

“I missed you too, Fili so much.”

Fili moved around to give her a hug, she could feel a few tears slip out and land on her shoulder and she squeezed him a bit tighter.  “Why didn’t you come back?”

“Because it was too hard.” Bella whispered and pulled away, wiping the tears from the boy who once would have been her nephew.

3.42

“Fili, is everything alright, what’s happened?”

Both Fili and Bella turned to face the new voice and the person it belonged to. Bella froze. 

"Uncle Thorin! Look it's auntie Bell!"

Thorin turned his concerned gaze from his nephews face and towards Bella. She could see the exact moment he recognised her, his eyes widened and his face lost the concern, only to be replaced with a pained expression.

"Right, I can see that, go grab your brother your mum wants you both home."

"Actually Fili, why don't you go join the boys and make sure they are sharing the pencils nicely." Bella suggested, giving him a little nudge in the direction of the reading area.

The two adults watched as he walked over, telling the younger boys that he was in charge of making sure they share.

3.47

5 minutes, Bella and Thorin had been standing next to each other watching the kids in awkward silence for 5 minutes. With a sigh Bella turned to Thorin and took in his appearance as she spoke.

"How have you been Thorin?"

The man had cut his hair, it was still slightly long and a bit shaggy but it was styled neatly, he was wearing a suit without a vest or tie but he looked very well put together. 

"I've properly taken over the business now. Less labouring and more meeting clients. Expanded it from just building to offer architectural services."

"That's good. But how are  _ you  _ doing?"

Thorin paused, taking a deep breath before answering "I'll be honest Bella, when you left I thought you were being dramatic and you were angry. I thought 'she's just upset but she'll come back tomorrow or the day after and apologise and everything will go back to normal."

"APOLOGISE! Thorin, I had nothing to apologise for."

"I know. Bella at first I was sure you were just overreacting, then I was angry and I thought I was angry at you for leaving and for giving up on us. Then Dis came over and Fili told me you said goodbye to him and he asked me why you left. And I told him that you left because I didn't stop you. And then he asked why I didn't stop you." Thorin paused now, looking her in the eyes for the first time. "I told him I didn't stop you because you deserved better." A couple of tears gathered in Thorin's eyes but he swallowed them back.

Bella looked over at the blond boy, watching as he told Frodo to let Pippin use the light red pencil because dragons were actually dark red.

"He was always quite perceptive wasn't he" she said, a soft smile on her face. Thorin nodded in agreement.

"Bella, do you think we could talk, properly, about us and about what happened?"

She took a moment before answering. If you had asked her yesterday if she would consider speaking to Thorin again she would have told you how much the idea of it made her angry. Today, with the man she had once thought she would marry standing next to her, there was only one answer she found herself giving.

"Yeah, that might be good. I was gonna take Frodo to the park after I drop the other three at home. Maybe you, Fili and Kili can join us."

4.26

"Off you go, but be careful and stay together and make sure you stay where we can see you!" The three boys ran off to the playground, Fili offering to push both the younger boys on the swings.

A lady walking by told them they had a beautiful family and while Thorin turned a bit red Bella gave her a polite smile and a quick thanks.

Silence fell again and once again it was Thorin who broke it.

"I meant it Bella. When I told Fili you deserved better, I realised then that I wasn't angry at you but at me. I was angry that I let you go, angry that I had pushed you away, angry that I let the best person in my life slip away." Thorin clenched his hands into fists before releasing them and stretching his fingers. "I Loved you Bell, still do. I knew that I had done wrong but that wouldn't be enough. I told myself I would make myself someone who was somewhat worth your time."

"Thorin, I loved you too, and a part of me always will. But I never wanted you to be 'worthy' of me. All I wanted was for you to stop putting yourself in such horrible situations. I loved you and I couldn't sit there and watch you come back half dead, I couldn't keep waiting and wondering if this time you wouldn't come home." A few tears slipped down her face and Bella quickly wiped them away.

"I know, and I wish I had realised sooner." There was a long pause before Thorin started talking again. "I stopped you know. Around Kili's first birthday. Took a more active role in the company, spent my time improving my work. I stopped with Azog and the orcs. Azog and half the orcs got arrested maybe a month later for involvement in various crimes. That's when dad stepped back and I took over."

4.33

"Bella, do you think we could try again?"

"Maybe, why don't you give me a call and we can see how it goes from there."


End file.
